What was your experience like?
I thought this was a fun experiment. Closing my eyes and just going about drawing organic shapes was relaxing. I didn’t have to stress about making a certain look for a character. There wasn’t any face that I had to worry about it with features and all. I didn’t have to go for any specific theme. My aim was to simply get something going on, then to color it in and hope it looks nice.
How do you feel about the results?
The results have left me feeling very satisfied and proud of my work. I spent more than an hour just coloring and filling in different shades of similar colors. There was jazz playing in the background and I didn’t have to worry about anything else. My mom even said she wanted to hang it somewhere in the house. I imagine this would have come out much better had I used oil pain instead.
Artist Conversation #4
Exhibition Information
Artist: Mahsa Soroudi
Exhibition:
Nature’s Cadence
https://www.mahsasoroudi.com/#!plant-show/bzxke
7,500 Miles
http://www.7500miles.org
Media: Photography, Digital, Nature, Contemporary, Culture, Paint
Gallery: Online
Website: http://www.mashsasoroudi.com/
About the Artist
Mahsa Soroudi is a Muslim artist born in Tehran, Iran in the year of 1988. As a child growing up, she was exposed to a variety of different cultures through media like Hollywood cinema and just traveling to a multitude of Asian countries. Her father is also a painter who runs his own academy. She acquired her BFA from Sooreh University in Tehran and thereafter immigrated to the United States, residing in Southern California. Most of artwork explores the issues of women, gender inequalities, and clichés, as well as society’s expectations of females. Things that are very apparent and laid bare for the audience to take in are depictions of intimidation, intimacy, and vulnerability.
Formal Analysis
In the case of Soroudi, we aren’t given any specific type of art piece, rather, we are given two projects of hers, Nature’s Cadence and 7500 Miles. Nature’s Cadence straightforward, takes the form of drought-tolerant succulents. The nature of this work uses actual plants rather than the type of art that we see in digital, painted, or sketched. Colors in this work aren’t very vivid but are just the natural colors of the everyday plant life.
7500 Miles in contrast takes a more vivid approach in terms of appearance. With the use of a variety of different colors and styles, the exhibition offers a vibrant textures and shapes through differentiation styles. Artists’ use of lines varies from straightness, jaggedness, blurred edges, and give off an almost impressionistic vibe that of Claude Monet.
Content Analysis
Nature’s Cadence: The content used in this project primarily uses the drought-tolerant plants that she has collected to parallel her experience coming to the United States for the first time. Rather than using paint, pencil, pen, or typical cliché types of art, Soroudi opts for the use of planted succulents.
7500 Miles: The idea behind the name of this project is to defy the Western stereotypes that have been projected on women; in Soroudi’s case, the emphasis is more so upon Iranian women.
Synthesis / My Experience
Going through every single piece of artwork showcased on her site was a very profound experience. Her message through Nature’s Cadence reminded me of one of our first assignments early in the semester where we had to find a piece of on campus. 7500 Miles presented a really raw perspective of how Soroudi feels for her fellow Iranian women. To see many styles of artists come together to paint similar stories was a unique experience.
Drew's Visual Art Adventures 